"THE JAPANESE WHO AWAIT "
_________________William T. Calhoun
Paul Whitman

What were the Japanese doing on Corregidor as we prepared to
for our jump?

Little would Lt. Don
Abbott ("E" Co.) and Lt. John Lindgren ("D" Co.) expect, but years after
they jumped upon Corregidor sans reservation, they would find themselves
seeking an entirely different contact with their former enemies.

The history of our post-war
Corregidor contact with the Japanese defenders began when the surviving
twenty Japanese surrendered to our forces on 1 January 1946 after Pfc. Kanehiro Ishikawa picked up an American newspaper with a picture of
General MacArthur and the Japanese emperor on the front page.
Fortunately Ishikawa spoke and read English.

One Japanese who was not a
member of the surrender group, but was stationed in Formosa has been
writing a history of the Shin-Yo-Tai troops (suicide
boats). He sent Don a paper he had written on Corregidor. He wrote that
in "early October of the year of Shawa 19 (1944), an anti-aircraft troop
was organized, then late that month crew of the warship which sank
offshore Leyte joined them to restore American Batteries for the defense
of the Corregidor Island. In November, construction units was sent over,
and seven Shin-Yo-Tai troops, from the 7th to the 13th, were dispatched
also to defend the island." He states the Shin-Yo-Tai men were moved to
Corregidor between the period of November and the next January.

He states
(I am selecting statements from his long and circuitous letter) that: "On December 20th, with the reorganization of the Marines
in the Manila region, Captain Itagaki was assigned as the director of
the Manila Bay area defense troops, with Commander Oymada as director of
Marine Special Attack Troops. Hence, the Corregidor attack force
consisting of the 7 troops, or 300 Shin-Yo-Tai boats and 6 torpedo boats
was born.

"On the 23rd of December,
the message "the enemy fleet is moving up north from Mindoro area with
possibility of attacking Corregidor was sent from Itagaki, and Shin-Yo-Tai was ordered to sortie."

An on-board
explosion in one of the boats caused 50 boats to explode and "100 men were lost. On
January 7th a similar explosion killed many more men. "

"By the end of
January, (the) total number of men stationed on the Corregidor was about
4,500."

"(The) American
fleet started shooting from ships on December 10, then added large
formation airplane attacks from January 23."

"On January 30, American
troops landed on Spik (Subic) Bay area. On February 10, battleships,
cruisers, destroyers, submarines entered in the Manila Bay, then started
attacks of the Corregidor."

A member
of the 'New-Year's Day Twenty' who surrendered was Sadashichi Yamagishi. In a letter to
Don Abbott, Yamagishi recalled that he entered the Marine Corps on 1
August 1944 and was assigned to a construction party consisting of 650
men. His party, the "333rd Construction Party" was aboard the Tatsuura Maru*
as part of a convoy of 10,000 men headed for the Philippines which left
Kure on 5 October. Tatsuura Maru was damaged by torpedoes but limped
into Manila. The unit was then assigned duties on Corregidor. Along with Army units they set
out to build seven gun batteries armed with guns of 14 cm. calibre (about
5.5 inches). These guns were taken "from a Japanese warship which had
been sunk in Manila Bay."

The 332 Construction Party joined them about
the middle of November, and they were combined as the "Yoshida Party"
indicating they were under the command of a Colonel Yoshida". The number
one, two, and three batteries were built in the area from Rock Point in
an easterly direction towards James Ravine. The other four batteries
were built from Wheeler Point in a westerly direction. They
successfully test fired the guns on 10 January. "We thought at this time
that we would defeat the U.S. military with our underground batteries.
We did not suspect that the U.S. military would attack using
parachutes."

He
recalled that the first air attack occurred the morning of 16 January,
when two planes strafed them. "It was a kind of notice that they finally
began the battle against us. They started the full-scale attack from the
following day."

"A
reconnaissance plane came at around 7:00 A.M. and, then five to ten
formations of bombers strafed in zigzags. We had almost no place to
hide. They came to attack every hour. We could hardly do our work
because of these attacks."

"The
attack became more intense day by day. They dropped bombs from bombers
from the following day. Especially the attack from the bomber's attack
was terrible."

"Bombs
exploded about 10 meters above the ground because they had the
mechanical device called instant fuse. They broke up trees, grasses and
buildings. We had to avoid enemy's attack, hiding in the caves because
we could not go outside in the daylight." "(The) U.S. military continued
their attacks from 7:00 in the morning till 5:00 in the evening every
day like a scheduled flight.."

"Most of
the island became like a field, because the trees and grasses
disappeared and the surface of the ground was exposed and was turned
over."

"A huge
explosion occurred during the night of 28 January which caused a
landslide that buried 100 men alive." Then he makes this strange
statement: "Someone set this accident on purpose. We had dead before we
fought the enemy." "I heard many petty officers were regretfully talking
with each other that they wished they had not applied to come to the
Philippines. Like them, we had thought that the Philippines was the safe
place to go. But, since the Japanese militarily lost in the Leyte
Battle, the war situation got worse. We could no longer expect the
Japanese military would win. The dream has been killed. We had to be
prepared for death."

"Our party
consisted of three squads and had 400 soldiers in total. We were living
separately in two caves. We got accustomed to air raids when they lasted
for almost one month. We went out between bombings and took outside
fresh air."

"On
February 14, we felt something was wrong. The U.S. warships were
offshore and reconnaissance airplanes were flying. Are they preparing
for firing from warships? When will they start the attack? We felt
weird. We were in great fear. The day ended with nothing happening. The
night is the time when we should be active. There was no sign that the
warships started moving."

"It was the
time when special attack boats, which have been reserved in the caves,
took action."

"About 60
special attack boats from the Army and Navy rushed about 30 U.S.
warships standing offshore. It was around 10:00 PM. The huge noise
caused by engines of 60 boats made the enemy's warships think that it
was an air attack. They started firing toward the sky but immediately
they noticed the attack was from the sea. They attacked fiercely against
our boats. Instantly we saw big pillars of fire shoot up. It was like
seeing fireworks on the water. The pillars of fire shot up in several
places. We thought we (had made) outstanding gains. Great shouts of joy
were raised by our fellow soldiers."

"The
garrison for Corregidor Island consists of: ( ? ) party in the Navy,
Kaneda air defense party, special torpedoes in which soldiers ride and
operate in special attack parties in the Army, Kurata machine gun party
and some crew (survivors) of the battleship Yamato** in addition to the
Construction party."

"Total number of soldiers was 5,500."

"(The
next-morning they) saw the U.S. battleships were laying offshore
in the morning on February despite our attack yesterday. We fired No. 1,
No. 2 and No. 3 batteries which we constructed. We fired from
underground, but the enemy found our position due to the powder smoke
made by firing. The U.S. battleships delivered a volley of fire against
us. We had a fierce exchange of fire. Our batteries were destroyed
instantly. We could not get any gains like we did yesterday."

"There was
no contending against such heavy odds. Most soldiers who were in the
battery were killed or seriously injured. They were put in the caves.
Some of them had their skin torn by artillery bombardments. They asked
for help but we could do nothing for them. They died suffering from
pain. It was as if a child were fighting a man."

"The U.S.
military, which was superior in numbers and arms, sent some
reconnaissance air-planes over the island. When they found something was
wrong, they instantly fired from the warships. "

"We could
not move except at night".

The next
account, and last, is from Pfc K. Ishikawa. He was born in 1915 and
drafted by the army on 15 July 1944. He had missed the draft up until
this date because he was not qualified. On 18 July, after
just a month in training, he was shipped out for Burma. Due to heavy
damage the convoy was diverted to Manila, arriving 8 August. He landed
on Corregidor 8 November.

"Heavy air
bombing and bombardment from warships started Jan. 1945."

About the
intelligence estimates of the numbers of troops on Corregidor, he wrote
that "your computed strength of 850 on Corregidor Is. may have been
correct up to around Sept. 1. I think reinforcement of strength was made
afterward. There were no Filipino working, as I have not seen any of
them!"

"We did not
expect Parachute Troop attack on the small island topside but prepared
for landing from North & South Dock and others area of seaport."

The Intelligence estimate of the number of
Japanese troops which were to be expected on Corregidor, "approx 850",
created an attitude of confidence within the Regimental HQ that, in
turn, led to an overconfidence in the deployment of patrols by the rifle
companies, and the extent and placement of their night perimeters.
This would cost lives.

Below
is a transcribed copy of a document, captured on 24 February, which gives a roster of the Japanese
units on Corregidor. By then, the casualty numbers of actual dead
indicated that the intelligence estimates had been wrong - yet an
attitude continued that there "couldn't possibly be many more Japanese"
to deal with.

Captain Itagaki of the Japanese Navy was the commanding officer of
CORREGIDOR. He is listed in other documents captured as CO 31st Special
Naval Base CORREGIDOR. - POWs all state he was killed by a parachutist
16 Feb. and buried.

*
At 0600 on 19 October 1944, convoy MOMA-05 departed Moji for Imari Bay
consisting of TAIHAKU, KOMEI, TENSHO, TAISHO, TATSUURA, TAIYO, ESAHI, DORYU,
PACIFIC, AOKI and SUGIYAMA MARUs and an unidentified ship. The convoy is
carrying about 10,000 reinforcements for the Philippines. On 26 October, the
convoy is attacked by Lt.Cdr. (later
Rear Admiral) Maurice Rindskopf's USS DRUM (SS-228) at 19-30N, 120-44E.
Rindskopf fires three torpedoes by radar bearings at TAISHO MARU and gets two
hits that sink her. She takes down about 1600 men, most of whom belonged to the
57th Independent Brigade and 10th Maritime Advance Battalion. At 0655, Rindskopf
torpedoes and damages TAIHAKU MARU at 19-07N, 120-42E. The forepart sinks,
although the aft part remains afloat. She is successfully beached in Lapoc Bay
and later abandoned. DRUM also attacks TATSUURA and TAIYO MARUs with uncertain
results. At about 0710, Lt.Cdr. Richard W. Peterson's USS ICEFISH (SS-367)
torpedoes TAIYO MARU. A cargo of gasoline she is carrying for "kaiten"
human-torpedoes ignites and sends flames hundreds of feet into the air. At 0730,
TAIYO MARU sinks. On 31 October, 1944 at 0950, KOMEI MARU is torpedoed and sunk
by Lt.Cdr. Enrique D. Haskin's USS GUITARRO (SS-363) at 15-18N, 119-50E. At
1010, PACIFIC MARU is also torpedoed and sunk by GUITARRO at 15-15N, 119-56E.
(Source:
http://www.combinedfleet.com/CH-28_t.htm accessed 20 June 2009)

** He evidently is confusing the
battleship Yamato, (65,027 tonnes) sunk en route to Okinawa on 7 April
1945, with the battleship Musashi (68,200 tonnes), sunk on 24 October 1944
during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Both were super-battleships, and their
as designed anti-aircraft complement was staggering - nearly 200
anti-aircraft guns could be brought to bare against any airborne attack.

*** The Musashi
, the largest battleship ever built, sank without ever firing her
18.1-inch guns at enemy ships. Over 1000 officers and men were lost. Of the 112 officers
39 were lost and 984 men were lost of the crew of 2287; therefore, some
1,376 officers and men were saved by destroyers. There is no indication
of how many of these survivors were carried to Corregidor.